Pantoea sp. At-9b

Pantoea sp. (strain At-9b) is a cellulose-degrading Gram-negative bacterium isolated from the fungus gardens of Atta cephalotes leaf-cutter ants. Pantoea sp. has the capacity to degrade cellulose, and thus may play a role as cellulose-degrading symbionts in the gardens of leaf-cutter ants. The symbiosis between these bacteria and leaf-cutter ants is further supported by previous work, which showed they can be consistently isolated from fungus gardens across the diversity and geography of leaf-cutter ants. Indeed, these bacteria appear to be responsible for a significant amount of the nitrogen that is fixed in leaf-cutter fungus gardens; nitrogen that has been shown to be integrated into the ants. (Adapted from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genomeprj/33803 and 20885794). (EBI Integr8)